I am processing this unbelievable event of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsing while contemplating the physical and spiritual mayday, the physical and spiritual urgent movement to soon follow, and the physical and spiritual shaking that some will experience.
The Book of Job teaches us nothing happens without God’s permission. Some events manifest as a consequence and sometimes events are for a greater divine purpose and many times unexpected events are for our refinement and ultimate benefit. God is the ultimate Harbormaster. Ponder these uncanny facts: The ship’s name that collided with our beloved bridge, means ‘Drawn up of God’. I interpret that to mean designed by God or destined or planned by God. Additionally, the infamous ship’s registered owner is ‘Grace Ocean Private, Limited’. Consider passages in the Bible that teach us tragic events and inconvenient restrictions are often for our benefit as well as a bigger picture beyond our limited perspective. Sometimes devastating events are an unimaginable act of grace, albeit terribly painful – especially for the loved ones of those now abruptly taken. Perhaps this unimaginable event is indeed an act of grace. Perhaps something far sinister had been planned, but this thwarted evil.
Furthermore, I see with this port disaster and the ripple effect to soon follow, Baltimore is being shuffled as people will be relocating. Did you notice President Biden used the phrase we’ll “move heaven and earth” to open the port and rebuild the bridge? Many felt secure, unmovable, in their livelihoods and homes like a steel bridge with concrete piers. Some may have been called to other things but out of fear resisted. They’ve been at the same job or home for years and comfortable as things were but sometimes GOD moves heaven and earth to transport us to where He wants us to be for our benefit. With this event, some will change jobs and homes due to a suddenly inconvenient commute or loss of a job. Others will move because homes will foreclose with the loss of port jobs and the broad economic ripple to follow. Others will move into the Baltimore region to rebuild and some will move out of the region to look for work elsewhere or move out for other reasons. Expect physical and spiritual relocation packages as a result of this collapsed icon.
As challenging as this is for us in Baltimore and the wider region, may we learn to trust not man or our well-intended plans, but trust in God’s plan. Let us learn to go when God says to go and to start anew when God dispatches or as the Baltimore dispatcher declared at the moment the bridge collapsed, “start, start, whoever, everybody!” Physical urgent movement is starting for our spiritual and physical benefit. Selah.
Although this website is designed to encourage the gardener’s soul to be “ever-blooming”, it’s okay to not always be “ever-blooming”. It’s okay to feel wilted, physically, mentally, and or spiritually. It’s okay to hibernate in dormancy to rest, replenish, and process all that’s happened up to this point. We all have days, weeks, seasons, or even years when the elements of this world seem to drown us in “atmospheric rivers” as gardeners in California may be experiencing this week. Should you find yourself in a challenging proverbial winter, just remember spring always arrives. For the gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere, we have just six weeks to wait. New beginnings will bloom… new life will spring forth… as will you and I.
One may think bugs, any and all bugs, are pesky nuisances invading our glorious garden, but the truth is without many of them, our garden wouldn’t thrive. Not only do insects, such as the honey bee, provide important roles, but they provide a variety of products as well like certain medications, candles, cosmetics, furniture polish, and of course, honey! Other insects, though ugly and inconvenient, provide proper nutrients to the good insects our garden needs. Often found roaming around our rose gardens are beneficial bugs like lady bugs, hoverflies, and lacewings. Conversely, bad bugs for our roses are aphids, thrips, and sawflies to name just a few. But are they really all that bad? After all, without the “bad” bugs the good bugs would have nothing to sustain them. Did you know just one adult ladybug can devour 50-60 aphids in day?
Most gardeners just want the bad bugs gone without considering the overall environmental factors. While you could spray your rose bushes with insecticide to kill off the bad bugs, you’ll also harm the good ones. Other organic methods include purchasing neem oil concentrate from your local nursery. Be sure to carefully follow the mixing directions though and only apply neem oil during the early morning, evening hours, or on an overcast day as spraying neem oil on your rose foliage during high heat days will burn the leaves. Another option in preventing bad bugs like thrips and the dreaded Japanese Beetle from infesting your rose plants would be to release Heterorhabditis Bacteriophora Nematodes into the soil. These small worm like creatures will seek out and destroy many annoying and dangerous threats to your rose garden before they have a chance to be seen!
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Moreover, assuming you will want your rose garden to thrive for years to come, it would behoove you, the Master Gardener, to be a good hostess by creating an inviting environment for the beneficial bugs to reside. In some ways, bugs are much like us in the sense that they need food, shelter, and water. They also appreciate convenience.
By providing a steady food source, you’ll keep your lady bugs, lacewings, and hoverflies happy. But before the aphid buffet shows up in the Spring, you’ll need to provide plant life that will nourish your good bugs earlier in the season. By planting herbs that bloom early and also provide good nectar, the good bugs will want to move into the neighborhood! Herbs such as mustard, dill, and parsley will be sufficient. You many also want to plant lavender, but leave room for growth as lavender tends to consume much space. Mint and thyme will provide a soothing smell to your garden while angelica is an herb that especially attracts ladybugs – bonus!
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In addition to the herbs, you’ll also need a bird bath, water feature, pond, or other water source free of chemicals like chlorine. Apparently, even bugs get thirsty and need a bath now and then! Once you’ve created such a welcoming open house, or rather, open garden, it won’t be long before the good bugs set up a nursery of their own by laying their eggs on
our rose foliage. But when the weather turns cooler, don’t let your hard work go to waste, be sure to provide them with ornamental grasses and soft wood twigs and branches, like willow, poplar, and ash for them to stay cozy throughout the winter months. Whether you are a novice gardener or expert, your roses will appreciate your efforts as you build an inviting and thriving rose garden.
“For I know the thoughts that I think about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. And you shall call Me and go and pray to Me, and I will hearken to you. And you will seek Me and find [Me] for you will seek Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will return your captivity and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will return you to the place whence I exiled you.” Jeremiah 29:11-14
When I compare the similarities of our garden to our lives, it’s interesting to note how God allows the bad bugs in our garden of life to manifest something spectacular in us as well as God’s heartfelt intention towards us. So often we blame evil or some religious circles blame Satan as the source of our troubles forgetting that even Satan had to seek God’s approval before doing any harm to our garden (see the book of Job). In other words, God, as the Master Gardener, recognizes the bad bugs, but perhaps He’s allowing them in our garden for a reason. Perhaps the reason is to discipline us for our disobedience or perhaps He is developing us into the fragrant, beautiful, disease-resistant rose He intended with no actual wrong-doing on our part such as the accounts of Joseph, Job, or Esther. However, other times, the unfortunate turn of events may actually be a result of our own unrighteousness. In the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet repeatedly warned of the Jewish people being taken captive should they continue to live as they desire rather than live as God desires found in the Torah. The Prophet Jeremiah foretold the Jewish people would be taken captive by Babylon for 70 years, but in the end, that God was using it all to cause them to repent, to seek Him with their whole heart, and in turn God will gladly regather them and bless them while continuing to teach them His ways and will for them as the light to the world. Interestingly, this same prophetic word is applicable to the future of the Jewish people and others who keep God’s holy covenant eventually being gathered to Jerusalem, Mount Zion, in Israel as a light to the world one fine new day (see Jeremiah 29-31; Isaiah 51-56, 60-62, 65-66; Ezekiel 36-37; Hosea 14; Zechariah 8-10, as a few examples).
I want to reiterate the fact that often the seemingly bad bugs attacking us as rose plants could have been released for the sole purpose of teaching us how to reflect our Master Gardener’s glory and splendor to a dark world needing to be enlightened in God’s light and love. How even more glorious and brilliant and yet challenging it is to be ever-blooming, testifying of His love, His wisdom, His justice, and His will when you are currently living amongst the pestilence of life!
In a perplexing manner, God is being a good host as He continues to develop His righteousness in you. He is busy creating a holy, eternal garden or environment where you and others may indefinitely thrive by allowing not just the good experiences or good bugs to benefit from you, but by equally, if not more so, using the bad and down-right ugly experiences to also cultivate beauty.
In doing so, His intention is to develop an ever-thriving, ever-rejoicing, and ever-blooming garden of God within you during the good, the bad, and the bugly. How we respond to such pests and said treatments remains to be seen.
“For when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness.” Isaiah 26:9-10
An unidentified beetle enjoys the foliage of a rose.
‘Miranda Lambert’, a hybrid tea succumbs to the end of her bloom cycle.
Deadheading Redirect
Once a rose has bloomed, its goal is to reproduce. To accomplish such a task, the blossom extinguishes its petals, and if pollinated by a bee, bird, or human, it will eventually transform into a rose hip. The rose hip is essentially a pod of rose seeds fulfilling the plant’s purpose of being fruitful and multiplying. However, if the gardener snips away the spent bloom, also known as “deadheading”, then the plant redirects its energy to produce yet more blooms. Various rose bushes, such as the floribunda variant, tend to produce multiple clusters of glorious blooms. Should one rose blossom and fade yet still be left amongst the plethora of other blooms, the spent bloom demands energy that could otherwise be redirected toward the remaining blooms in the cluster. Alternatively, the gardener could simply snip the spent rose so the energy is redirected to the remaining thriving buds or blooms. On a hybrid tea variant, the gardener could potentially remove all the budding blooms while leaving only one to flourish. The remaining bud will then produce a larger and more beautiful rose than if it was left to compete with the other burgeoning buds.
“Happy are those who observe His decrees, who turn to Him wholeheartedly!” Psalm 119:2
As I have evolved in my theological studies and come into understanding more and more of the Torah, I realized I have been exposed to and believed in many fallacies over the years. Ultimately, after grieving such popular deception, I opted to “deadhead” those spent blooms so my energy could be redirected to produce healthier and more spiritually accurate, full blooms. In doing so, I learned to alter and prioritize in my life what is important according to God’s Torah instead of what some may teach or assume is truth. I ultimately carefully examined my heart, my mind, and my lifestyle, then accordingly, repented, and redirected myself to love Adonai with all of my purged heart, mind, and being to the best of my ability. I realized the more I come to know God and His teachings found throughout all of the Tanakh, the more I realize I know nothing at all!
“I have turned to You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commandments.” Psalm 119:10
Moreover, I found myself relating to David’s many psalms, particularly Psalm 119 as he embraced God’s instructions instead of rejecting them. David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), goes on to scribe in verse 34 of Psalm 119, “Give me understanding, that I may observe Your teaching and keep it wholeheartedly.”
In time, I discovered the secret to producing a beautiful spiritual garden while being fruitful and multiplying isn’t necessarily producing multiple seeds or nourishing a plethora of blooms unknowingly propagating lies and error; rather, when we become aware and are willing to deadhead all the unnecessary deceptions and distractions, redirecting our energy on meditating on God and Torah while growing into His commandments, we then find ourselves fully blooming!
‘Memorial Day’, a fragrant hybrid tea rose blooms with ‘Paul’s Scarlet Climber’ in the background.
Have you ever noticed how climbing roses produce far more shoots and consequently, stunning clusters of blooms when forced horizontal? As a rosarian, I’ve learned if I gently bend the rose’s cane while fastening it securely with string, the cane will produce significantly more blooms than if I let it grow as it pleases. I have to be careful though as the pliable and tender canes can snap. Equally important is the tension of the string. If the string is too loose, it defeats its purpose of guiding the growing cane. Conversely, if the string is too tight, it can pierce the tissue of the cane causing damage or complete destruction. Ultimately, I have the authority as the master gardener to sculpt each cane as I see fit.
“My body and mind may waste away, but Elohim (God) remains the foundation of my life and my inheritance forever.” Psalm 73:26
Similarly, once upon a time, this frustrated cane found herself no longer free to grow or go wildly as she pleased. Instead, Abba Father, my Master Gardener, placed enough strings to tenderly, but securely force me horizontal through intense back and joint pain preventing me from escaping my bed. Much to my despair, in a matter of weeks, my full-time income rapidly dwindled to part-time income, then unemployment. My financial stability was seemingly ruined! But God delivered and worked everything out for my benefit similar to the Biblical accounts of Joseph, Job, and Esther. Consequently, those difficult days produced a soul harvest I would not trade for any paycheck or even my health.
“I have riches and honor, lasting wealth and righteousness. What I produce is better than gold, pure gold. What I yield is better than fine silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, on the paths of justice, to give an inheritance to those who love me and to fill their treasuries.”Proverbs 8:18-21
Though uncomfortable, OK, frankly it was miserable at times, I blossomed spiritually and emotionally. Through that season of physical pain, this life slowly but surely surrendered to Abba’s nurturing as He wasn’t hesitant to tackle my prickly thorns one by one. His strings were His boundaries inviting me to grow according to His purpose for my life. I could have rebelled against His plans and His boundaries or I could cooperate. The choice was mine. Thankfully, whether vertical or horizontal, I decided to grow with God’s flow!
